THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609200539
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 87 lines
Searching for a fresh approach to tackle an old problem, city school officials have hired consultants to help them improve academic achievement.
Among other things, their plan calls for holding teachers and principals accountable for student performance, giving financial rewards to employees at schools that raise student performance and possibly pink slips to those who don't.
For the first time, schools would be expected to make specific gains on standardized test scores. And while teachers and principals would be held responsible for results, the plan would provide struggling schools with extra help and resources.
One of the consultants described the approach as ``accountability with a heart.''
A primary goal is to raise the persistently poor performance of many of the urban school system's African-American students and low-income students of all races. The two groups make up nearly two-thirds of the city's 35,000 public school children. Many of these children consistently score below national and state averages on standardized tests.
``We're going to set ambitious test score targets, reward employees for achieving those targets, and focus all our energy on helping schools achieve those targets,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said Thursday. ``We've got to take a giant leap.''
School Board Chairman Ulysses Turner said, ``We believe all the pieces we need are already here in our school system. The consultants will help us unify those pieces. The end result should be improved student achievement.''
Members of the School Board met Thursday with consultants Dan Saltrick and Jeff Schiller, former public school educators who earlier this year formed their own consulting firm, Instructional & Accountability Systems of Mooresville, N.C., which specializes in education reform and improvement.
The consultants will be paid about $82,600 to develop the plan over the next eight months. They came to Nichols' attention because of a similar plan they started in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg, N.C., schools, where both once worked. Nichols said some of the most dramatic improvements occurred among the same type of low-achieving urban students he hopes to reach in Norfolk.
In Charlotte/Mecklenburg, Saltrick worked in instruction and Schiller in research and assessment, both as assistant superintendents. Before going to Charlotte, Schiller formerly evaluated school improvement and directed research and testing activities during a career with the U.S. Department of Education that spanned the Nixon and Reagan administrations.
The consultants currently are working with six other school systems in South Carolina and Georgia, Schiller said.
As part of their contract, the consultants will:
Draw up ``growth'' plans unique to each school that target needed improvement. By the start of school next year, schools will be expected to make specific gains on state standardized test scores. The improvement rate will be assigned based on the past performance of students at each school.
Develop a districtwide ``report card'' to let the public know how well the schools are doing.
Work with teachers to pinpoint academic standards that all students should meet in reading, math and science in kindergarten through eighth grade, and in English, math and science in high school. The process will refine standards already in place, based on recommendations of national education organizations, local preference and the new state Standards of Learning. The local standards outline what students must learn in each grade, but may go above and beyond what Virginia requires.
Assist in designing brochures, to be sent home to parents, that will outline what children are expected to learn in each grade.
Identify weaknesses and strengths in the schools' instructional program and work with teachers and principals to help students learn better.
Early response from the ``front lines'' - teachers - sounded hopeful.
``If this is something that works and makes a difference for kids and improves their learning, I don't think there's anyone who could be against it, if it's fair and equitable to everyone,'' said Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers.
Schiller said one key to the program's success is ensuring that all students are required to master the same essential academic skills - even if it takes some students longer. That may be one of the toughest sells, he said.
``You'll hear that it's unfair to expect so much from kids who have such little support, but you're going to have to stand tough on that,'' Schiller said, and not lower standards.
Another problem could be coming up with incentive money. For the program to work, Nichols estimated, a pool of about $2 million would be needed for bonus pay to employees in successful schools, including principals, teachers, custodians and cafeteria workers.
To guarantee that money was available, City Council would have to approve it, Nichols said.
KEYWORDS: CONSULTANTS NORFOLK SCHOOLS by CNB